CalVCB says $3 million outreach campaign lifted awareness among low-income Californians but drove limited immediate applications

The California Victim Compensation Board on May 28 reviewed a final report from its $3 million public awareness campaign and heard vendor Civilian, Inc. say the effort significantly increased reach and engagement among underserved Californians.

Executive Officer Linda Glill and Deputy Executive Officer Katie Gardinas introduced Civilian’s team, who said the campaign (April 2024–February 2026) combined broad statewide placement with targeted outreach in priority counties. "We delivered approximately 280 million impressions," Civilian account director Travis Kushner told the board, and the firm reported 1.58 million clicks to the CalVCB website and about 1.6 million new users.

The nut graf: Civilian said the campaign produced a statistically significant awareness lift among low-income Californians in priority counties (from 25% to 31% post-campaign). Staff and the vendor cautioned that applications are a lagging indicator and that the campaign’s main objective was top-of-funnel awareness and trust-building rather than immediate increases in awards.

Civilian described a multi‑layer approach: baseline always-on placement, market emphasis in Kern, Los Angeles and San Diego, ethnic‑media partnerships (Tagalog, Chinese, Vietnamese, Punjabi and others), and a low‑income media layer targeted to households under $75,000. Lisa Welburn, Civilian’s director of media services, said the campaign delivered 48 million Spanish‑language impressions and achieved roughly 65% reach in key counties with an average frequency of eight exposures.

Presenters and CalVCB staff highlighted additional campaign outcomes: 9,000+ high‑intent users clicked to start applications, 72% of 'ad‑aware' respondents reported taking some action after seeing ads, and exposure increased respondents’ belief that CalVCB could help them financially. Civilian also described a mid‑campaign creative pivot after Los Angeles wildfires: they delayed LA flight timing and removed the word "rebuild" from messaging to avoid confusion among fire‑impacted residents.

Board members pressed on why awareness gains did not immediately translate into more applications. Deputy Executive Officer Katie Gardinas and Civilian said two factors likely limited short‑term conversion: (1) preliminary FBI data showed violent crime declined from 2024 to 2025, reducing the pool of new applicants; and (2) broader declines in government trust and the complexity of CalVCB’s application process were barriers. "Our focus in this campaign was filling the top of that funnel to build awareness," Kushner said.

Staff told the board they are taking steps to reduce friction: the vendor transferred digital assets in‑house as the Civilian contract ends, and CalVCB is completing a series of plain‑language instructional videos (five short videos, scripted at a sixth‑grade reading level and being translated into 16 languages) to explain how to apply, benefits available and how to proceed if a crime report is unavailable.

Why it matters: Board members said wide campaign reach and culturally tailored media are important first steps to reach underserved populations, but they cautioned that awareness alone does not guarantee increased program access and urged continued work to simplify the application and bolster partner networks.

The board received the report and asked staff to bring follow‑up materials on regional trauma recovery center data in July.